| Fan Fiction |
by Micah
“It’s happened before…and it hurt. But just because you’ve been lied to before, it doesn’t mean you have to give up on trusting anyone else.”
“Aren’t you afraid of getting hurt again?”
“I am. I’m afraid of getting hurt, but it’s a part of life. If you want the happiness, you have to put up with the sadness. Happiness happens because of sadness, just as sadness happens because there is happiness.”
Kibum considered the words, the meaning behind them. Now he felt even guiltier than he did before.
“Jaejoong…hyung,” Kibum began, actually getting use to the address. “Can I ask you another question?”
“Of course!”
“Why do you give everyone nicknames, except Changmin?”
Kibum saw one of Jaejoong’s eyebrows raise and didn’t miss the slight amusement in his eyes. “Well, I used to have nicknames for him, lots of nicknames. They change overtime. But when he confessed to Junsu and we became rivals, I stopped using nicknames on him.”
“Why?”
“I’ll tell you while you keep eating.”
Kibum chuckled. He nodded and continued to eat.
“I give people nicknames to feel closer to them. It means the person and I are good friends. But I was supposedly fighting with him for Junsu, so we were love rivals. I didn’t want to give him a nickname and make it seem like I still want to be close friends with him,” Jaejoong paused. “What else do you want to know about that tuxedo wearing Stick?”
Kibum covered his mouth with his hands because it would be impolite to grin while he had food in his mouth. He quickly swallowed the food before asking, “What nicknames did you have for him in the past?”
Jaejoong’s eyes looked as if they were shining. He knew Kibum was asking because he wanted to know more about Changmin, which made Jaejoong quite satisfied. Instead of pointing that out, the blond man said, “You want to know so you can make fun of him, right?”
Kibum thought about it. Why did he want Jaejoong to tell him more about Changmin?
He wasn’t sure, so he answered, “Yes.”
Jaejoong grinned. “Great! I love all people who can make him miserable. Hmm…let’s see. I called him ‘Penguin’ for a while back in middle school.”
“‘Penguin’?” Kibum found himself asking with a mouth full of rice. Then he quickly covered his mouth and looked embarrassed by his ill-manners.
Jaejoong laughed at how cute he was. “Yeah, starting in middle school, he kept wearing tuxedos…and that’s excluding school uniforms. We’d be hanging out after school and he’d still be wearing a tuxedo. I swear, the guy has all the tuxedos in the world, a collection of them!”
Jaejoong continued to unravel his list of nicknames, slipping in personal information about Changmin every chance he got. Kibum struggled to eat and laugh at the same time.
It may very well be the happiness meal he’d had in a very long time.
[E.n.d.F.l.a.s.h.b.a.c.k]
“You told him all that about me?” Changmin exclaimed with a flustered face.
“Why not?” Jaejoong questioned innocently. “He asked, remember?”
Changmin stopped looking angry that his personal information had been exposed to Kibum. He blinked once, twice, and then murmured, “Oh.”
Kibum had asked, which probably…most likely, mean that he…cared?
“Can we worry about Jaejoong embarrassing you in front of Kibum later?” Junsu interrupted.
“Right! Right! What happened afterwards?” Changmin quickly asked.
During this whole time, Yunho had silently finished massaging Jaejoong’s arm. He had moved this chair to sit in front of Jaejoong and had lifted Jaejoong’s leg onto his lap to massage the bruise on the blond man’s calf. No one spoke a word about it, as if it was the most casual thing in the world. Jaejoong did try not to coo at his sweetness though.
“Anyway, so my break ended and I had to get back to work. It started getting busy so I couldn’t talk to him for the rest of the night. He just continued to sit there like he used to do at the other restaurant that I worked at.”
Yoochun, Junsu, and Changmin recalled the first time they had seen Kibum.
“He waited for you?”
“Yeah, he sat there until the restaurant closed. He tipped Heebon a huge amount too! She wanted me to help her get his number because she thought he was really hot and smart…”
“Make sure she understands that he’s only interested in me,” Changmin cut in.
“Oh, please,” Junsu rolled his eyes.
Yoochun concluded that Kibum was also one of the people who were interested in a companion of the same gender. A lot of people in this era probably were. Why was it a debatable issue anyway?
Yunho was still busy hating the injury on Jaejoong’s leg.
“Continue, please,” Yoochun requested.
“Okay, so we left together…”
[F.l.a.s.h.b.a.c.k]
“Where’s your car? Or your chauffer?”
“I came here in a taxi.”
“Oh, but isn’t that…not safe for you?”
“It should be okay.”
The two were walking side by side to the end of the street. It was easier to catch a cab there. It was late, the street was empty and shops were closed.
“Do you watch cartoons? You should watch Disney movies! They’re the best things in the world!”
“Really? Which do you recommend the most?”
“There’s too much: Bambi, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven…”
Before Jaejoong could finish, they heard the screeching of a stopping van. Both turned to see the door slide open and a bunch of masked men came running out.
“Run!” Kibum grabbed Jaejoong’s arm and pulled him away.
Both ran as fast as their legs could carry them, until Jaejoong started to feel his legs go weak. It’d been so busy tonight that he didn’t even have time to eat dinner!
“I…I can’t. You go. They want to catch you. Go!” the blond man tried to breathe as he fell onto the ground. “Go!”
Kibum looked behind them to see the masked men catching up. He released Jaejoong’s hand and started to run.
He ran and he ran. He heard Jaejoong’s cry of pain and turned to see the men kicking his friend. Some of them were beating Jaejoong up; others were still running after Kibum.
So Kibum quickly turned back ahead and ran, turning the corner and continued to run. Even when he was out of earshot, he could still imagine Jaejoong’s painful groans. So he turned another corner, and then another corner, and took a shortcut into a small, dirty ally.
He eventually circled his way back to where Jaejoong had fallen. He found a stick in the ally and chose it as his weapon. Breathing hard and struggling to stand on his hurting legs, he charged for the group who were still hurting Jaejoong.
Kibum managed to land several hits and the masked men had to retrieve in defense. It was hopeless to fight any further, especially when the men who had been chasing Kibum had found their way through the ally.
“Jaejoong,” Kibum dropped the stick and knelt down to touch his friend’s shoulder.
Jaejoong strained to raise his arms and grabbed onto Kibum, hugging the younger man tightly. To the masked men, it looked like the blond man was frightened and only hugging the black hair man for comfort. They did not hear Jaejoong whispering, “Take my watch, take my watch,” to Kibum.
“Get him!” one of the masked men shouted.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Kibum murmured.
Two men grabbed Kibum, one on each side and tried to pull him away. Jaejoong’s left hand refused to let go of Kibum’s hand. Kibum was still confused, but struggled out of the masked men’s grip to hold onto Jaejoong’s left wrist with both of his own hands. His hands got a better hold of Jaejoong’s lime green watch.
The masked men grew angry and gripped harder onto Kibum to pull him away. Kibum could see that he had to unclasp the watch in order to remove it, but he couldn’t do that. So he tugged harder, even if it hurt Jaejoong’s hand.
Jaejoong’s body was pulled and slid on the rough, ground before another masked man moved to grab onto him. The masked man pulled Jaejoong’s arm away from Kibum and the blond man had to bite his lower lips, drawing blood, when the watch left his wrist.
Kibum felt his heart ache as he gripped tightly on the lime green watch in his hands.
The masked man kicked Jaejoong in the stomach.
“Don’t hurt him!” Kibum shouted.
“Who would have thought? Mr. Kim Kibum would come running back for the life of another,” the same masked man mocked.
“Let him go, please,” Jaejoong begged, holding onto his stomach.
“I don’t care how you do it, but convince his assistant or whoever to prepare a large sum of money. We’ll contact you soon. If you dare notify the police then we’ll kill him and I promise you, you will experience more pain than you already have,” the same masked man ordered, kicking Jaejoong’s stomach once more.
“Stop!” Kibum shouted, his eyes beginning to moisten.
The masked man made a gesture with his hands and Kibum was dragged into the van.
Jaejoong was breathing hard as his eyes strained to see the license’s plate. He couldn’t see it. But that’s okay.
[E.n.d.F.l.a.s.h.b.a.c.k]
Yunho was bandaging Jaejoong’s left hand. Jaejoong tried not to wince because he knew it would make Yunho feel even worse.
“I’m okay,” Jaejoong murmured, eyes on Yunho. He was so quiet, too quiet.
Yunho looked up into Jaejoong’s eyes for three seconds before lowering his head again to finish on the bandage.
“Why the watch?” Changmin inquired.
“It’s the lime green one,” Jaejoong informed. “You two remember it, don’t you?”
Junsu nodded. “The one that you spent your whole month’s salary on and we yelled at you for being so irrational.”
“The one that you bought because it has a lot of cool, but useless functions…and because it was lime green,” Changmin added.